Machine for leveling shoes



Feb. 1 1927.

- B. P. COOPER MACHINE FOR LEVELING snows Filed Sept. 15, 1922 Patented Feb. 1, 1927.

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BASIL POMEROY COOPER, OF LEIGESTER, ENGLAND; ASSIGNOR.TQ UNITED SHOE; MA-

CHINERY CORPORATION, OF. EATER-SON, NEW J A CORPORATION OE NEW JERSEY;

MACHINE FQR-LEVELING SHOES.

Applicationfiled September 13,1922, Serial No.

This invention relates to machines for leveling the soles of boots and shoes, and s illustrated as embodied in a leveling machine designed to level the sole of a boot or shoe by a shaped bottom pressing form while the shoe is on a wooden last. The illustrated embodiment of, the invention is signally advantageous in the leveling of both welt and Mcl lay shoes.

Formerly, thev leveling of welt and McKaysewed shoes requiredthe use of leveling machines of distinctly different types. The desirability of leveling welt shoes while the shoes were on their wooden lasts required that the leveling pressure be carefully regulated to avoid breaking or otherwise injuring the lasts. This requirement, among others, led to the development of leveling machines of they so-calledautomatic type, such as the machine disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,239,664, granted Dept. 11, 1917, on application of W. C. Baxter. in machines of this type, rolls traveling progressively over the soles of the shoes fect pressures applied locally over successive small areas. On the other hand, the customary withdrawal of the lasts from Mc- Kay-sewed shoes for the bottoming operations permitted supporting such shoes for leveling on iron foot forms. This made practicable the heavy pressure required for shoes of such types, resultlng in the development and use of so-called direct pressure levelers, in which the leveling is effected between a metallic foot form inserted in the shoe and a leveling mold or form of the shape desired for the shoe bottom. Such a machine is described, for example, in United States Letters Patent Nos. 1,275,562 and 1,359.50? granted respectively Aug, 13, 19.18, and Non 2 1920, on applications of Jet-- and Gouldbourn.

The necessity of using entirely different machines for leveling welt and McKay sewed shoes not only involved the expense of two-machine equipment but, as above indicated, neither type of machine possessed by any means all the advantages characteristic of the other. For example, the automatic type of machine referred to, while 587,962, and in Great Britain October 18, 1921,

pern'iitting the leveling of shoes without withdrawing their lasts, did not perform the leveling between the last bottom and a replica of it, and, furthermore, the soles as a whole could not be kept under pressure very long without embarrassing slowness of opera.- tion due to thesmall pressure areas at any given moment. On the other hand, the clirect pressure type of machine referred to, while making it practicable to subject the shoe bottom as a whole to heavy pressure and providing molds or forms of the shape desired for the shoe bottom, did. not permit the use of a replica thereof to support the shoe for the leveling, since metallic foot forms necessarily fall short of being a full reproduction ofthe last.

Recognizing these conditions and the desirability. of providing a single machine which would combine various advantages characteristic of the types of machines above referred o and would thus be well adapted for use in leveling both welt and McKay sewed shoes as well as other types of. shoes such as screwed or nailed shoes, there was developed the invention described and claimed in copending application Serial No. 561,201, filed May 15, 1922, in thenames of F. B. Keall and W. T. Minett.

This invention enabled a directpressure leveling machine of the type set forth in said Letters Patent Nos. 1,2(5,562 and 1,359,507, to level shoes on their wooden lasts by providing a shoe bottom-shaped pressing form cooperating with a cradle properly supporting the last under the se Vere pressure of the machine, and provided further an additional feature whereby the interchanging of the cradles or supports to correspond with different sizes of shoes as they came to the machine, simultaneously effected an adjustment of the last cone sup porting mechanism to maintain. adesired relative position of the pressing form and the bottom of a shoe on the last, irrespective of the size of the shoe,

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a still further improved machine of the direct-pressure type inwhich shoes o? various types can be properly km eled while still on their wooden lasts. The invention is illustrated as embodied in a machine of the type set forth in the said Keall and Minett application, in which the wooden last is supported under the pressure of a shaped leveling form by acradle.

One important feature of the present invention resides in an improved adjusting mechanism for maintaining the bottoms of the shoes leveled in a direct pressure leveling machine by the use of a cradle arranged to support the major portion of the forepart against the leveling pressure, in the proper relation to the shaped pressing form, irrespective of their size. "With a view to avoiding the necessity of providing a different cradle for each different size of a line of shoes, I have provided for adjusting both the cradle and the support for the last cone or heel part in opposite directions, according to the size of shoe to be operated upon. Preferably, and as herein illustrated, these adjustments may be effected simultaneously by manipulation of a single member operat ing to move the cradle and the last cone support oppositely along slideways.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, to insure that upon such adjustment of the cradle and last cone support, the various parts of the shoe soles, considered lengthwise of the shoes, will be alined with the corresponding parts of the bottom pressing forms regardless of the length of the shoes, provision is made in the illustrated machine for moving the cradle and last cone support at different speeds, calculated to keep in registration a fixed point on the pressing form and a point on the shoe bottom located a certain percentage of its length from one end to the other irrespective of its absolute length,for example, to keep in registration a point in the shank somewhat to the rear of the ball of the shoe and a corresponding point on the bottom pressing form. This organization thus insures quick and accurate relative adjustment of the cradle and last cone support whatever the length of the shoe to be operated upon.

To compensate for differences in heel part height and forepart thickness of lasts of different sizes of shoes, in accordance with another feature of the invention, the illustrated. slideways are sloped away from each other so that relative adjustment of the cradle and the last cone support toward or from each other lengthwise of the shoe at the same time effects a relative heightwise adjustment.

The above and other objects and features of the invention will become fully evident to those skilled in the art from the following description, given by way of example, of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings 1 is a side elevation, partly in section of a part of a machine with a shoe support according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is an end view of parts of the mechanism shown in Fig. 1;

Figs. 3 and 4: are diagrams illustrative of a method of making last-supporting cradles for the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The general organization of the machine in connection with which the invention is illustratively disclosed will be found more fully described in the application of Keall and Minett cited. It comprises a pair of shoe supporting jacks or work supports (not shown) adapted to be independently connected with actuating mechanism when rocked from a vertical work receiving position to an inclined operating position under a shaped sole pressing form A. Each jack when in operating position is oscillated through a small angle about an axis lying substantially in the tread surface of the sole of the shoe being leveled, to cause the leveling of the shoe by progressive action back and forth along the sole, the area of pressure at any instant being, however, considerably greater than in the case of the automatic machine of the roller type.

In the construction illustrated, the outer end of the foot carrying shank 1 of the leveling machine, described in the above cited application, is modified to have or to receive at its outer end a block 4. which has formed on its upper surface two inclined guideways 1-0 and 11. The ways are alined so as to be in the vertical medial plane of the leveling form or mold A and are shown inclined upwardly toward each other from the opposite ends of the block, each forming an angle of some 75 to the axis of the shank 1. This inclination of the ways ensures that when the cradle and the last cone rest, which they support, move simultaneously (as hereinafter indicated) they rise or fall also at such a rate that the last bottom in all cases is at about the same height, irrespective of the size of the shoe, and an undue range of the automatic adjusting mechanism (see the patents cited.) between the shank 1 and its support is not called for.

On the way 11 nearer the front of the machine is guided a forepart cradle support 18 and on the other way 10 guided a. lastcone rest or support 19.

The forepart cradle support has at its upper end a plane finished face 520 to which is secured, for ready removal therefrom, a cast metal cradle member 21. The cradle is secured and positioned on the feel 20 by pins 22 (on the cradle) and 23 (on the support) and is held in position by a spring plunger 24 the end of which enters a recess in the pin 22. The cradle 21 has a molded surface 25 which in the largest of the range of sizes of the style to which it is patterned covers most of the top face of the last from till lin

just behindthe toe to well up the instep. The molded metal face has secured'to' it a correspondingly molded felt facing or bed The last-cone rest support 19 is in the form of a. post which at its upper end has a gi-iideway 27 curved about a horizontal aXis above the post (and preferably substantially level with the recessed face 3st hereinafter referred to) and perpendicular to the ways. The last-cone rest 28 has a guide 29 at'its lower end traveling in this curved guideway andat the top has a flat tabular surface in which is formed an undercut circular recess 30 having an opening, somewhat narrower than the circular recess, to each side of the rest. A tabular block 31 has on its underside a tongue 32, having parallel straigl'it sides and circular dovetailed ends, which is slid through one of the openings and turned through to engage the dove-tailed ends with the undercutcircular recess. The block is held in position by a spring plunger 33 and has an upper somewhat recessed face 34 slightly narrower than the cone face of the'last on which the cone of the last rests, the lastbeing unconstrained, as regards the means which engage its cone portion, against movement laterally of this tabular rest. The block 31 and'recess 32 co-joperate to allow of easy replacement of one of these blocks by another of difierc-nt width to suit a different width of last or of different height to deal with an unduly worn or battered last while the somewhat recessed face 34 allows of a last resting steadily on the block even if by wear its cone has becoine somewhat convex. Along the ways 10 and 11 and free to rotate in, but fast against longitudinal movement on, the block la're screws 35, 35 respectively, engaging nuts 36 on the cradle support 18 and last-cone rest support 19 respectively, to move the supports along; theways as the screws are rotated. A hand wheel 37 is fast to the outer end ofone screw and the inner ends of the screwsl'iave fast'thereto bevel pinions 38, 38 both in mesh with a bevel pinion 39 rotatingen the block l. In view of the factthat the cradle engages the shoe'about half way between the toe tip and the midpoint of the lengthof the shoe, the pitch of the cone support screw 35 is twice that of the other 35 and the whole arrangement e. the screw pitch ratios and the angles of the ways) such that any movement of the c 'adle support 18 along its way results in movement of the cone rest support 19 in an opposite direc* tion along; its way of twice the extent and, that, apart from the reduction of duty on the compensating mechanism already referred to,lasts of different sizes of the same style will be properly supported (i. e. with the bottom always in the same aspect to the form of the machine) byboththe cradle and therest with'the mid-point of the length ofthe' last always in substantially the same position lengthwise ofthe form. The burden of supportingthe last during actual levcling is borne mainly' of'courseby the cradle, although. in some measure by the rest 31, butin order to steady ain dposition the last prior to the leveling pressure being exerted thereon and especially tofprevent the last shifting unduly during the somewhat-sharp rearward and downward movement of the block 4 into position under the form, a rigid metal band4l0 linedwith feltis secured to the cone rest support 19 to engage the sides of the heel. end of the last. This band is of a width'to' engage but a small portion of the last sides considered heightwise of'tl'ie last, and at the portion which embraces the heel "end of the last is V shaped so thatthe opposite sides of the heel end of the last are supportedby faces of it which are subs antially' perpendicular to one another. This band will accommodate, and adequately guard againstundne displacement, aconsiderable range of lasts but may be'adjusted if necessary as it is connected by pivot screws 41 (l ing on a horizo tal-"axis perpen'dicular to the ways and forward of'and well below the cone rest) to opposite sides of the con e rest si'ipp'ort 19, there being screw and slot connections d2 between it and the said support to lock theband in adjusted position about the pivot pins.

The bevel pinions 38, 89aforementioned and the portions ofthe screws 35, 35 which would otherwise become exposed on the movement apart of the supports 18, 19 are enclosed bya casing 43 fixed'to the member at 'forinilng'a telescopic connection at each end with one of the supports so-that the ways, screws and pinions aire'protecte'd from foreign matters liable tofall into the same under shoe factory conditions.

l Vith an arrangementas described, a full range of items or of womens sizesof las't'ot' a givenstyle'can'be' dealt with by a single cradle, that is to say, thecradle' in the one case could accommodate some six and 'in"the othe'rcase some seven sizes.

The cradles for a construction such" as illustrated in Figs; 1 and 2 are convenientl produced as follows, reference being made to Figs. 3 and 4:-One of the larger of the sizes of last, for example size C, of the'style to be dealt WlillllS secured in a box in'a definiterelation to a real orimaginary face a in the boX which is taken as a lo'as'eof reference and represents the'back'plan'e'face a on which the mold orpressure form his mounted in the machine. bottom is in thepositionu'elatively to said base which the last wouldoccupy during levcling were it"in the machine and were the said base atthe back ofthemold, that is to say the last'is set (a) with the mid-point Tbe'last'is set so thatits of its length in a certain position lengthwise of the said base; (6) with its bottom in correct orientation to said base as regards a longitudinal axis; and (c) with the toe of its bottom and the heel end of its bottom at given perpendicular distances from said base. The portion of the last which is to be received in the cradle is covered with a layer 6 of leather or other suitable material to represent the felt lining of the cradle and a cover is then placed over the last which has an opening 0 (shown in plan in Fig. 4) through it to that face (Z, (Z of the cover which is next the portion of the last to be supported in the cradle. The said face (Z, (5 about the opening is plane and the opening in said face is'of the size and shape of the aforesaid finished face 20 at the top of the cradle support. The face (Z, (Z of the cover is set at the angle to and the distance from the said base a which equal, respectively, the

invariable angle and distance between the aforementioned finished face 20 on the cradle support and the plane of the back of the mold A at a given stage of the machine cycle during leveling for a last of the size set up; and the edge of the opening 0 in the face (Z, (Z is then in the exact positional relationship to the base a which the margin of the face 20 will be in they machine at said stage of the cycle. Manifestly if for different styles the size chosen as that from which to produce the cradle is always the same, the relative positions of the cover and the said base are invariable and the last alone requires any particular setting according to the shape of its bottom. A plaster cast is now made of the space between the cover and the part of the last upon which the leather or the like 7) has been secured. This is done by introducing the plaster through the opening a in the cover the plaster being in any suitable way, by packing strips or the like confined more or less to the region between the opening a and the member 7)) and the junction of the cast of the opening and of the inner face 0!, (Z of the cover around the opening definitely locates the position and indicates the form of the face which is to be left on the cast to produce in the final casting the face on the cradle which is to mate with the finished face 20 on the top of the cradle support. From this cast a casting1nold is made in any convenient way and cradles which are thereafter made fromthis mold can without any finishing, except a surfacing of the face which is to rest on the cradle support and merely after the attachment of the felt facing thereto, be directly located in proper position in the machine.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a machine for leveling the bottom of a shoe while on a last by direct pressure by the use of a shaped bottom pressing form, two oppositely extending ways, a cradle support arranged to embrace and support the major portion of the last forepart to resist the leveling pressure and a last cone rest support arranged to slide on the ways respectively, and means for moving the said supports in opposite directions on the said ways to adjust them to the shoe being treated.

2. In a direct pressure leveling machine, two oppositely sloping ways, a cradle support arranged to support the major portion of the last forepart and instep to resist the leveling pressure and a last cone rest support arranged to slide on the ways, and means for moving the supports on the ways in opposite directions to adjust them to the shoe being treated.

3. In a direct pressure leveling machine, two oppositely sloping ways, a, cradle support arranged to embrace and support the major portion of the last forepart to absorb the pressure transmitted from the form and a last cone rest support arranged to slide on the ways and screw means for moving the supports on the ways in opposite directions, the screw which operates the cradle support being of smaller pitch than that which operates the last cone rest support.

4. In a direct pressure leveling machine for leveling the bottom of a shoe while on a last by the use of a shaped bottom pressing form, two oppositely sloping ways, a cradle support arranged to fit the ball and instep portion of the last to distribute the pressure transmitted from the form and a last cone rest support arranged to slide in the ways and screw means for moving the supports on the ways in opposite directions, the screw which operates the cradle support being of smaller pitch than that which operates the last cone rest support and the screw means and the slope of the ways being arranged to place the tread surfaces of lasts of varying sizes in the same position relatively to the form, when the lasts are mounted on the cradle and last cone rest.

5. In a direct pressure leveling machine for leveling the bottom of a shoe while on a last by the use of a shaped bottom pressing form two oppositely extending slideways, a cradle support in the form of a trough arranged to support the last from the neighborhood of the toe to the instep constructed and arranged to distribute the pressure transmitted from the form and a last-cone rest support arranged to slide on the ways respectively, and means for simultaneously moving the said supports on the ways at different speeds.

6. In a direct pressure leveling machine for leveling the bottom of a shoe while on a last by the use of a shaped bottom pressing form, two oppositely extending slideways, a

cradle support in the form of a trough arranged to embrace and support the last from the neighborhood of the toe to the instep and a last-cone rest sup-port arranged to slide on the Ways respectively, and means for simultaneously moving the said supports on the Ways, constructed and arranged to eifect simultaneous movements of the conerest support and the cradle support, one of said movements being substantially twice la the other.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

BASIL POMEROY COOPER. 

